IELTS Short Answer Questions: Reading Practice

IELTS short answer questions for reading require you to locate answers in the passage. Skim read the passage and then spend time preparing the questions. Pay attention to question words which will help you understand what type of words you need for your answer. The answers for short answer questions always come in order in the passage. This is a reading practice lesson created for IELTS students.

The History of Easter Eggs

Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are special eggs that are often given to celebrate Easter or springtime. The practice of decorating eggshell is ancient. Ostrich eggs with engraved decoration that are 60,000 years old have been found in Africa. In Europe, it was traditional to use dyed and painted chicken eggs at Easter, but a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs, or plastic eggs filled with confectionery such as jelly beans.

Easter eggs are a widely popular symbol of new life in Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, and other Central European countries where they are concealed in the garden for children to find. Eggs, in general, were a traditional symbol of fertility and rebirth. Some magic rituals, these days, often use eggs to promote fertility and restore virility (of the body and mind); and to foresee the future.

Questions 1-3

Answer the questions below. Choose no more than two words from the passage for each answer.

What is another name for Easter Eggs?

What type of eggs were formerly used at Easter in Europe?

What did eggs represent on the whole?

Answers

Click below to reveal the answers.

Answers

Paschal eggs (No capital letters are needed in IELTS listening.)

chicken eggs

fertility rebirth (no “and” is needed as you can have only two words as your answer)

Vocab Builder

another name = also called

oldest tradition = many generations ago

in general = on the whole

were a symbol of = represent

All reading exercises on ieltsliz.com have been written by myself to help you prepare for your IELTS test.

Liz

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Liz, you are simply fabulous. I had my speaking (GT) yesterday in Nigeria. All levels studied were your materials. It helped me a lot.
I am sitting for the listening, reading and Essay tomorrow, l have been glue all day online at Liz. Thanks for the free services.
Keep increasing dear.

Hi Liz
Are these examples put together by you or are they passages from actual IELTS tests / approved practice materials? And if they are done by you, are they following the correct IELTS guidelines?
In the official exam, can you have give an answer such as “fertility rebirth”, without using any connection? Can we simply list words?
Confused by the fact that I had to answer in no more than two words, I answered “new life”, which made a hell of a lot more sense to me than the suggested answer.
Thanks,
Gabriela

How to answer Short Question types in reading and listening?
Do they have to be grammatically correct?
For example,
Where is Anna going? (audio played: She says that I’m going to office)
Is it correct to say ‘Office’ or ‘to her office’ or ‘to office’?(3 words allowed)
Same is the case for reading.
Please help.
Deepika

Thank you for all your help Liz. I have a suggestion for the reading section exercises. I feel it would really help if you give us a time limit for all the reading exercises so we can finish them in the required time. That would make the practicing much more effective. Please do consider this suggestion . Thank you.

Liz – Your website is simply awesome. I am glued to it since morning going through contents on reading section of the IELTS test. Great work. I believe your study materials will help me a lot to get the best scores.
Also, I have one question on the above sample test- What if I just answered fertility alone? Will I be given marks?

You need both words for one mark. There are no half marks given. Your answer is either 100% correct or it is wrong. Don’t forget that these are not sample tests, they are just practice exercises. You can find a free reading test on this page: http://ieltsliz.com/useful-websites-and-resources-for-ielts/

Dear Liz medam ,
Thanks for your help. Your efforts are absolutely worthy to us.
Medam i want plenty excersice for reading test with different types of question such as T/F/NG , matching heading etc…so please suggest me any website or any book from where i can get more excersice. Thanks.

Hello,
I haven’t understood the usage of capitals and lower case letters for starting letters of a word. You explained P is capital for Paschal because it is the first letter. Isn’t it because it’s a proper noun?
Also shouldn’t C be in capitals for chicken in the second answer as it is the first word? Why are we penalized for this?

The word “chicken” is not the first word of a sentence because there is no sentence. This is not sentence completion, it is short answer questions. Completely different requirements. Try to learn more about how to answer the different types of questions in reading.
All the best
Liz

You are asked to find two words and to answer a question. So, you should provide two words. You have not been asked to complete a sentence. Each type fo question has different requirements for the answer. Read about the question types and learn more.
All the best
Liz

Hey, liz, Recently I’m start my ielts exam preparation, so please say me, How to improved for reading part i want to overall 6 so how to get it, please kindly your excellent information.
I’m from Dhaka in Bangldesh, IDP or British council which is better to ielts, so i expect your information ….

The question is about “formally used eggs” – this means “in the past”. The chocolate egg: “a modern custom is to substitute chocolate eggs”. This means the problem you have with this question is understanding the English word “formally”.

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About me

Hi, my name is Elizabeth (Liz). I am your IELTS teacher and the author of this website. My aim is to help you understand IELTS and achieve a high score. I am an experienced teacher and completed my IELTS examiner training in 2008.